CoMP (Coordinated Multiple Point Transmission and Reception) and C-RAN (Centralized, Cooperative, Cloud-Radio Access Network) are becoming increasingly important in wireless communication systems involving Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE Advanced. Both C-RAN and CoMP systems perform joint/shared processing of uplink signaling received from different remote heads (RRHs). Power management is an important aspect of user equipment (UE) operation. Power management of uplink transmission ordinarily involves obtaining a path loss estimation. In earlier LTE and LTE-Advanced systems, uplink power control typically measured path loss based upon home eNB downlink CRS (Cell Reference Signal). The measured path loss value usually is used to decide uplink transmission power of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and the sounding reference signal (SRS). Thus, the path loss measurement directly determines uplink channel performance. Unfortunately, determining uplink power control based upon the home eNB CRS produces sub-optimal results since multiple uplink reception points (RPs) (e.g., multiple RRHs) are employed by C-RAN and CoMP.
Therefore, there has been a need for a system and method for improved determination of uplink path loss to support uplink transmission in C-RAN and CoMP systems used in wireless communications.